New Zealand Studies Association (NZSA)

The New Zealand Studies Association (NZSA) evolved in January 2001 from the New Zealand Study Group that had been previously established in 1992. It hosts an annual conference and now includes the twice-yearly refereed Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies.

The main aim of the NZSA is to function as a meeting and information point for encouraging both New Zealand and Pacific Studies in Europe and beyond by providing a forum for the artistic, social, cultural, political, scientific and economic study of New Zealand/Aotearoa and the wider Pacific region.

Since 1994, NZSA/NZSG has organised an annual conference at New Zealand House and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies,
University of London. In 2005, the conference was held at the University
of Kent, in 2006 at University Paris, Dauphine, in 2008 in central Florence, in 2009 at Goethe University, Frankfurt, in 2012 at the University of Gdansk, in 2013 at Radboud University Nijmegen, in 2014 at the Norwegian Maritime Museum and Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo, and in 2015 at the University of Vienna. Conferences are intended to be friendly, open, and informal gatherings with the intention of bringing together people interested in New Zealand and Pacific
Studies.

Each conference has focused upon a specific theme, such as: Across the Pacific, Empires and Cultures of the Pacific, New Zealand and the South Pacific, New Zealand - A Pastoral Paradise?; New Zealand Fictions: Literature and Film; New Zealand Then... and Now: Society and Culture; Postcolonial New Zealand;
and New Zealand - The Urban and The Rural. These conferences
have attracted a wide range of international speakers, including Witi Ihimaera, Anne Salmond, Sia Figiel, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Robert Sullivan, Erik Olssen, Judith
Binney, C.K. Stead, Patricia Grace, Albert Wendt, Claudia Orange, Michael King,
Alan Duff, Vincent Ward, Vincent O'Sullivan, Anthony McCarten, Don McGlashan, David Hill,
Chris Pugsley, Manying Ip, Jock Phillips, Ian Wedde, Fiona Kidman,
Emily Perkins and Claudia Bell. In addition, the association organises seminars, panels and meetings which have featured speakers such as James Belich and Gaylene Preston.